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Don’t Bump The Trump

A warning for those who chance to meet a wild Trump coming home late at night, past a graveyard, all alone in a storm: Don’t bump the Trump. [With apologies to Shel Silverstein.]

I’ve been running this love fest with presidential candidate Donald Trump for over five weeks with no idea where it’s heading. Now I find I will be able to post a new item every day from now until November without repeating myself. Thank you, Mr. Trump. It’s the nicest thing anybody’s ever done for me.Thank you very, very, very much!

Self-obsessed billionaire Donald Trump earlier snatched the campaign torch from the Republican Party by scooping up conservative America’s low-hanging fruit. Full disclosure: it’s something I proclaimed over a year ago could not be done. I was wrong! How wrong? Very wrong. I completely failed to take into consideration Donald Trump’s well-publicized generosity:

Until a few weeks ago, the Clinton Foundation was a magnet for controversy, while the tiny Donald J. Trump Foundation remained in the shadows. Suddenly, a damaging expose in the Washington Post and the disclosure of an illegal campaign contribution paid by the Trump Foundation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who subsequently decided not to pursue an investigation of scandal-plagued Trump University, has unleashed a storm of criticism and rendered the once obscure charity a major drag on the Trump campaign.

Oh, no! Can’t be. It’s the Clinton Foundation that’s being accused of pay-for-play. I mean, while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, all those rich and powerful people gave money to the Clinton Foundation, founded and managed in part by her husband. Then these same rich and powerful people, as rich and powerful people often do, came and talked to Hillary Clinton. Not just, “Hi, Hillary, How about them Cowboys?” Not just, “Hey, I think you’re in my parking space.” More like, “I contributed $10 million to the Clinton Foundation and now you’re going to have to look the other way while we build a pipeline through a black rhino preserve in Africa.” I’m not sure this is what actually went on, because I have no records of any such occurrence. If you want the straight scoop you’re going to have to go to the Trump Campaign.

Donald Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty this year, an official at Trump’s company said, after it was revealed that Trump’s charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Florida’s attorney general.

The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.

Earlier this year, The Washington Post and a liberal watchdog group raised new questions about the three-year-old gift. The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint with the IRS — noting that, as a registered nonprofit, the Trump Foundation was not allowed to make political donations.

Ouch! That looks so bad on the surface. A closer look will reveal only an innocent misunderstanding.

Actually not.

David A. Fahrenthold, writing for The Washington Post, went on to mention what he calls “another error.” The Trump Foundation failed to tell the IRS about the donation. Instead, there’s a $25,000 gift to a Kansas charity with a name similar to the Florida Secretary’s political group. Reality is that the Trump Foundation did not actually give the Kansas charity any money. This “error” had the effect of hiding the Trump Foundation’s political gift to Bondi’s campaign. Ever on the watch, Trump’s business quickly spotted the error when The Washington Post and the Citizen’s group made it public. The Post went on to state:

McConney said that Trump had also personally reimbursed the Trump Foundation for $25,000, covering the full value of the improper gift. McConney blamed a series of mistakes, all of them unintentional. McConney said there had been no attempt to deceive.

It’s a good thing there was not intent to deceive. Of course, you might ask if there really was no intent to deceive. I mean, you make an illegal political contribution from a foundation that is enjoying tax-exempt status, as for example a 501 (c) (3), and there is going to be hell to pay if the IRS finds out you did this. If there is no intent to deceive, then what you do is immediately after you make the donation you get on the telephone to the IRS, and you say, “Hi, guys. My tax-exempt foundation just made an illegal contribution to a political campaign. So take that and shove it where the sun don’t shine.” That’s what you do if there is no intent to deceive. If there is intent to deceive, then you do exactly what the Trump Foundation did, only it would have been done better if I had been running things.

Would that all of us were as generous as presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Yeah, it’s game on. We are going to have more fun between now and November. We can be assured Donald Trump will never fail to entertain us.